Looking for Advice on Ripping my CD Collection (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

The new, replacement Samsung 1TB drive arrived today.

As I am now quit proficient at opening/servicing the Brennan B2 unit (along with some straight answers on how to format the new drive), it took me just a few minutes to get it installed.

Before:

After:

Soon, the ripping process will begin. But I've got a few other projects underway right now...so I'm not exactly sure when.

 

[BobO'Link]

You'll be quite some time with the ripping. I had ~1500 CDs when I started mine about 4 years ago. It took me about 9 months to get it all done - that was doing as many in a day as I could from the minute I walked in the door from work until I went to bed. I ran across a half dozen or so that just wouldn't rip no matter what I did so those got replaced with copies that would (and I still don't know why as they play just fine in every player I've ever used, even the drive used to rip them).

And as I'm slowly playing most of those rips in my car I'm finding occasional "errors" (mostly misspellings or the artist also being on the track name) and fixing those.

 

[jcroy]

I ran across a half dozen or so that just wouldn't rip no matter what I did so those got replaced with copies that would (and I still don't know why as they play just fine in every player I've ever used, even the drive used to rip them).

I had discs of this type, where they played fine on my standalone audio cd player. In contrast, they were hellish to rip in a secure mode on EAC, or wouldn't rip at all.

For a large batch of such nasty unrippable discs, it turned out they were all manufactured at the same cd pressing facility: "Disque Americ" in the late-80s -> early-mid 1990s. (ie. They all had "DISQUE AMERIC" written in the first non-transparent inner ring away from the center of the disc).

Disque Americ

Disque Améric was a Canadian optical disc pressing plant active from February 19, 1987 to February 2011. Joint operation by a consortium including MPO, SNC Group of Montréal and the Québec Government. Like many Canadian companies, it has two legal names, one in French (Disque Americ Inc.) and...

www.discogs.com

 

[Mike Frezon]

My first update:

The ripping process has been moving along. Over a few nights I've got about 40 CDs ripped. This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint. But I knew that going in.

I was asking a lot of questions at the Brennan Forum about the suggestion posted on the Brennan website about the reasons to engage an external CD drive (less stress on the B2's internal CD drive & faster ripping). Surprisingly, no one there really seemed to want to own that suggestion.

My practical experience was that my external CD drive (purchased especially for this process) was ripping MUCH faster than the B2's drive. The B2 drive was generally ripping between 4 to 8.x while the external USB drive was generally ripping above 10.x and sometimes above 20.x! The B2 drive was never reaching those speeds.

But, what happened? About a dozens discs into the process, the external drive interrupted the rip and spit out the disc--making a horrible noise in the process. And that was it for the drive. I disconnected/reconnected, re-powered the unit, etc. and it wouldn't re-enter the process. It was dead. It is heading back to Amazon with a different drive on its way as a replacement.

Because even though the ripping process is a marathon, that doesn't mean I want for it to take as long as possible!

 

[Mike Frezon]

After spending the last couple days ripping CDs at the slower speeds given me by the B2's internal CD drive (4.x-9.x), I received my replacement external CD/DVD drive from Amazon today (I LOVE Sunday USPS package deliveries!).

The external drive immediately gave me much improved speeds of 10.x to 24.x. Such a difference! Discs take a fraction of the time to rip.

Not only is it a GREAT feeling in the short term to have the satisfaction of each disc popping out of the drive in half the time (or so)...but I can only imagine what the long-term time savings will be for the entire job.

Fingers crossed that this drive will last for the duration of the project!

 

[MielR]

oops double post

 

[MielR]

Glad to see you got the Brennan. I was curious about that little gadget!https://www.hometheaterforum.com/co...e-brennan-b2-for-streaming-cd-ripping.358902/

 

[Mike Frezon]

Yes! I posted my interest in your thread then, too!

So far, things are going pretty well.

I'm not a fan of slot drives, either. But, I think the main advantage is the way it lives in your a/v system. It also has a built-in amp to connect speakers, to use it as a stand-alone audio device. If I'm not mistaken, you don't need the web interface to control it, it's just an added convenience. I gather it also rips CDs a lot easier than a PC does. I've personally found ripping CDs on a computer to be quite frustrating.

As you know I had a lot of the same questions. I LOVE the fact that the B2 will serve as my music player in my HT.

In fact, after loading the first 99 albums (mostly standards--Sinatra, Bennett, Fitzgerald, Krall, Pizzarelli, Buble, Nat King Cole, etc,) I finally hooked it up to my HT and did some playback. Just fabulous! I was having so much fun jumping around listening to all my favorites...songs which hadn't made it to my gear in many a day! And it really sounded great. Loads of fun. I didn't want to stop.

This cued me in that the web interface is pretty important. One, for organizational purposes...helping with the organizational aspects of getting artists/songs all filed in ways that make sense to me. But, also, in terms of playback. The small display on the front of the unit would make navigation of all those artists/songs kind of difficult. It sure would be nice if the interface could be displayed on my TV (like when I play high-rez music via my AVR from USB).

I've never really been enamored with slot drives either. The only place I ever used them, in fact, has been in my cars. But for this project, they are way preferred over drawer drives. I have always found the process of opening the drawer, pushing the disc on the delicate spindle, closing the drawer to be delicate PITA process. Multiplying that by 1000+ discs wouldn't have been something I ever would have undertaken.

 

[Mike Frezon]

An interesting thing about the B2 is that it doesn't directly rip the CD tracks as FLACs. It rips them as WAV files and then compresses them to FLACs. The compression takes place in the background--or you can tell the unit to do the compression. So, whenever I load a number of discs, I usually just tell it to compress the new material when I head off to bed. It enters "standby" mode and does the compression.

After 99 discs (18 different artists), I have a total of 1555 FLAC files on my B2. Out of the 1000GB available on the SDD, I have used 27.83 GB. I'm not very good at math, but I think that means at that rate I could get roughly 3500 CDs onto the unit.

As I've typed up these last two posts, I've been sliding discs into my slot loading external drive, having them rip at 20.x speeds, they slide out when done, and I slide the next one in. Then when I'm done with this little stack, I'll open up the web interface and do any necessary housekeeping in terms of artist/titles/etc.

A great feeling of accomplishment getting almost all of my "standards" CDs loaded onto the unit. Not sure which genre I'll tackle next.

And, I still need to acquaint myself with the software's way of dealing with genres (by playlist). I figure that'll be my next part of the project as I will begin to designate the genre/playlists as I complete each section of my collection.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

When I ripped my collection I used to average around 10-15 discs a day with the PC. Some weekend days - snowy weather - I could get 50 done.

 

[BobO'Link]

You could see if there's a "browser app" for your TV. If so, use it for your navigation console. If not - use your gaming system (assuming you have one - IIRC both PS and X-Box have a browser built in).

 

[Mike Frezon]

When I ripped my collection I used to average around 10-15 discs a day with the PC. Some weekend days - snowy weather - I could get 50 done.

My little milestone of 99 CDs (now 107!)...represents both one genre and one physical plastic tub of discs. So I had a great feeling of accomplishment plowing through that in just a few days' time!

Now I gotta decide what's next!

 

[BobO'Link]

When I ripped my collection I used to average around 10-15 discs a day with the PC. Some weekend days - snowy weather - I could get 50 done.

I averaged around 10 discs per day when I did mine. I'd come in from work and start a disc, usually get in 3-6 more depended on the day and if I had issues with the rip *and* if I was paying attention as I'd start one going and then sit in my comfy chair across the room where it isn't that easy to tell if a disc finished or not. I usually got in 15-25 per day on the weekend.

It was a great feeling when I put in that last disc of the collection. Now I just rip things as they come in so there's no backlog to deal with.

 

[Mike Frezon]

You could see if there's a "browser app" for your TV. If so, use it for your navigation console. If not - use your gaming system (assuming you have one - IIRC both PS and X-Box have a browser built in).

Brennan HAS made an app for smart phones.

It might be useful for playback purposes...but I think the Web user interface is going to be key for keeping everything organized.

Here are some screen shots from my phone:

 

[BobO'Link]

I'm one of those "A phone is for phone calls" kind of people. I don't own a "smart phone" as I can't stand the interfaces on them and find the apps quite annoying, often being a royal pain to use effectively. My wife has an iPhone (which would not be my choice even if I owned a "smart" phone) and the only app I find remotely useful is "Face Time" for those couple of times a month my out-of-town grandkids call to "talk" (more of a let us watch them play call). The short version is "I hate phones - all phones - with a passion."

 

[John Sparks]

I have a large CD collection and I play them on my Sharp 5 CD/Cassette/Radio/iPad/iPhone player in the back yard.. I thought the CDs were loud because I'm was laying out by the pool...here in So Cal...today is 85.,..HOLY SHIT!!!..

Well, my son. showed me how to connect my Ipad to the Sharp thru the AUDIO IN with a cord+. I bought Amazon Music and for now the audio is TWICE as loud thru the Sharp...one happy camper.

 

[Mike Frezon]

After 99 discs (18 different artists), I have a total of 1555 FLAC files on my B2. Out of the 1000GB available on the SDD, I have used 27.83 GB. I'm not very good at math, but I think that means at that rate I could get roughly 3500 CDs onto the unit.

A status update. I got bogged down in recent days with various work/family stuff...but have finally reached my next milestone.

I currently have 3100 FLAC tracks from 201 albums and 62 different artists loaded onto the Brennan B2. Out of the 1000GB available, I have used 59.24GB. The math still figures to a capacity of about 3400 albums.

I did have one hiccup in this second hundred discs. At one point I had some kind of glitch during the ripping process and the SDD became recognized by the Brennan software as "read only." This, apparently, is something that can happen when a file gets corrupted. So ripping came to a stop. But all I had to do was export all the tunes I had ripped onto a USB flash drive, reformat the SSD and then import the tracks back onto the SSD...and all was well. The softare makes that procedure painless. I hope its not the kind of thing I encounter often...but, we will see.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I now have 4480 FLAC tracks from 300 albums and 89 different artists loaded onto the Brennan B2. Out of the 1000GB available, I have used 90.07GB.

The trajectory has been steady. For every 100 albums I add, I have used 30GB of SDD space (allowing for a total of 3333.33 albums--based on my 1000GB drive).

The process has been moving right along. My new external drive has been a reliable worker bee (so far). The main variable to getting this done will be my own ability to devote the time necessary to rip the discs.

Most of it is pretty simple stuff. The only time-consuming work (outside of ripping) is when I need to add artist/track information to those rare discs which are not found on the database used by the unit. Also (and this is something MANY B2 owners complain to the company about) the artists appear in the software in a "first name/last name" configuration. I considered just "going with that" as I started this process, but quickly realized my OCD self would not allow it. So whenever I rip, say, a "Frank Sinatra" CD, I have to change the name of the artist to "Sinatra, Frank." However, if I rip all the Sinatra discs in one sitting, all the albums show up in the same artist category and it only requires one single name change. Not too bad at all.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I now have 5832 FLAC tracks from 400 albums and 138 different artists loaded onto the Brennan B2. Out of the 1000GB available, I have used 123.37GB.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I'm up to 7537 FLAC tracks from 500 albums and 171 artists. I have used up 151.1GB of my 1TB SSD drive.

The beat goes on. I'm most of the way through my Broadway cast and Film Soundtrack CDs now. The database seems to be really excellent with those discs so far. Nearly 100% recognition.

I think I'm doing pretty well...given all the other pulls on my time right now.